Kathy Osborn

Kathy Osborn's cinematic paintings hark back to the 1950s and 60s, when a boom in wealth in the post-war era glorified consumption and the practice of traditional domestic roles. This time period has been depicted in art and culture in countless ways, often with a strong sense of longing for “simpler times". 

Osborn's work, however, lacks this nostalgia. She addresses the darkness of the nuclear age that was buried beneath layers of cultural repression. Osborn captures women's domestic isolation through stark shadows and voyeuristic angles, implying that one is not meant to see these scenes of women sitting in darkness, confined to their homes, absent from the public sphere.

Osborn composes her works from miniatures that she meticulously arranges and photographs, producing starkly photographic yet strangely physical paintings that haunt and disorient the viewer.

Kathy Osborn is a painter based in Hudson, New York. She was an illustrator for 25 years, with work featured in several publications including The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, GQ and New York Magazine. Osborn began her painting career in 2014, showing in exhibitions at John Davis Gallery (2015), Geoffrey Young Gallery (2015), Gallery Molly Krom (2015), Susan Eley Fine Art, Art on Paper Fair (2016), Art Miami CONTEXT (2016).